Citibank to increase checking fees

Citbank, whose parent company received tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer bailout funds, has decided to charge some of its poorest checking-account customers a monthly fee:

Starting in February EZ or Access checking accounts will be charged $7.50 a month unless they maintain a $1500 balance. The monthly fee used to be waived if customers set up direct deposit for paychecks–or had two automatic bill pays. “When I opened this account they told me it was going to be free. Then what happens a month later? I get charged about $7,” said Moussa Gueye of New Haven…. Citibank isn’t the first to raise fees. In June, Bank of America raised its monthly fee by $3.